Postgame Quotes - January 26, 2014

Pistons at Mavericks

(Can you talk about the run your team made in the 3rd Quarter?)
“We made a nice run. I thought Brandon played well in the 3rd quarter. I thought that was the difference for us to get back in the game. The way he played, pushing the basketball and trying to get easy baskets. I think that’s what we did. We got some stops, although they still shot 58 percent for the game, but we got some stops and were able to get some easy baskets.”

(What did you tell your team when Dirk got hot at the end?)
“We know Dirk. He’s been doing this for a long time. The way he picks and pops, catches the ball, he either makes a play for someone else or for himself. He always seems to make those threes. That’s what he’s been doing for a long time.”

(Do you think Andre was engaged tonight?)
“He just had a bad game. The guy is 20 years old and we’re not going to expect him to be like a machine every night and go grab 18 or 19 rebounds. He’s 20 years old and he just didn’t have a good game.”

(The Defense tonight)
“I think we can get better. We have to work on our perimeter defense were they’re going inside the paint or beating us off the dribble. We can get a lot better guarding the ball and that’s one thing we have to do because it puts so much pressure on our big guys.”

(On how the Mavericks were able to execute)
“They moved the ball very well. They put us in a lot of situations where we had to rotate. They made a lot of shots off of the drive and kick.”

(On having to rotate and play help and recover defense)
“I drop to protect the paint first. If there is penetration we have to guard the rim first.”

(On if the Pistons were physical)
“I don’t think we weren’t physical. Maybe if I look back I would be able to answer that question. Just right now I wouldn’t be able to say that we weren’t physical enough.”

(On the play of Andre Drummond)
“Everybody has some games where it’s just not going for them. He will be fine. I am not worried about him. He has shown how good he can be. It’s just one game.”

(On if this game was indicative of what Devin Harris can give the team each game)
“Yes, he’s been going better and better each game. He’s obviously worked extremely hard, he’s getting more rhythm and more feel, and shots are going in now. He just made plays. On a night when Monta [Ellis] just couldn’t get it going it was a Godsend to have a guy like Devin available. He’s an experienced NBA player who has really done everything. He’s been a starter, he’s been an off the bench guy, he’s been a scorer and he’s been a guy who’s had to be a top defender on his team. And he’s smart, he knows what we need. He knows we need hardnosed play, penetration and we need defense.”

(On if this is about the max range for Devin’s minutes per game)
“Casey has been telling me to not be concerned about the minutes. I’ve been looking to see just how he is fatigue wise. Generally speaking, he’s a guy that is in pretty good shape naturally because he takes care of himself and he’s just one of those guys that has a lot of natural energy and stamina. I just want to make sure that I don’t play him in stretches that are beyond exhaustion. Like tonight, it would have been easy to play him 15 straight minutes but that is getting into some dangerous territory there.”

“We moved the ball better. The one play we ran for him to start the game, he happened to miss the shot, and then made four or five in a row. But guys know to look for him. He’s been driving the ball better which gets him to the free throw line a little more and things like that. Look, every night we have to have everybody ready to step up. Dirk is not going to get 28 every night. Sometimes Monta is going to have a night like tonight and the good news there is that we were able to give him a low minute night, which he really hasn’t had all year. So, now we have a couple of days to gather ourselves and we have to get ready for another tough opponent on Wednesday.”

(What was talked about during the timeout when you guys were up 101-96 with five minutes left in the game?) - “Down the stretch in the huddle we just said that we need to get a stop. They (Detroit) were making a run and they were trying to push themselves back into the game, but we composed ourselves and we scored two straight baskets and forced them to call a timeout.”

“We were close several times in the game to kind of blowing the top off and we got sloppy with the ball, we threw it around and they made a run or hit some free throws and we never got the cap over 12 points, but we stuck with it and a win is a win in the NBA.”

“When we hit that two game skid, we really brought our focus together and the sense of urgency was turned up and we were able to close out the game and get the win tonight.”

“Well every game is going to be tough in the NBA, but at the end of the day we executed a little bit better tonight. We made a few mistakes, but I think we really played a 48 minute game tonight even with those mistakes. I think we did a pretty good in defense even with all of their offensive rebounds, but we were okay today.”

(Talk about Devin Harris’ play tonight?) – “Well he was great. We knew he was going to be a big help for this team. He can do a lot of things for us. He can play D, he’s fast, he can shoot the ball and we can play with different rotations when he’s in the game. He’s been good so far and he’s getting better every day.”